"Is owning a gun in your home a dire need today? Supposedly not, but it is still legal and there is sometimes a need."
Edward, it is not about need, though that is an underlying purpose. It is about a right preexisting the Constitution, which only recognizes the right to arms, it does not grant the right. I have carried a pistol for fifty years and more, and only came close to needing once. But you never want to find yourself in a gun fight without a gun! The SCOTUS has finally come down on the right side, but just barely. We must be ever vigilant. Rightly or wrongly, our ancestors felt the same way about their issue. Stan